The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Primula plant, botanically known as Primula vulgaris, commonly known as primrose, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Kerbelmilk.’
The new Primula is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventors in Over, Cambridge, United Kingdom. The objective of the breeding program was to create new, compact pot-type Primula cultivars with numerous double flowers, short peduncles, and attractive leaf and flower coloration.
The new Primula originated from a cross-pollination made by the inventors in Over, Cambridge, United Kingdom, of two unnamed and unpatented proprietary Primula vulgaris seedling selections in March 2001. The new cultivar, ‘Kerbelmilk,’ was discovered and selected by the inventors as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in Over, Cambridge, United Kingdom, in February 2002. The breeding program also produced several other new cultivars disclosed in pending applications, namely, Ser. No. 11/046,000 for ‘Kerbelbut’, now U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,373; Ser. No. 11/045,999 for ‘Kerbelcrem’; Ser. No. 11/045,997 for ‘Kerbelnec’, now U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,365; and Ser. No. 11/046,033 for ‘Kerbelpice’, now U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,598. All of these applications were filed in the Patent and Trademark Office Jan. 28, 2005.
The new cultivar was first asexually propagated by the inventors by tissue culture in the summer of 2002 in Enniscorthy, Ireland, and that and subsequent propagations have shown that the unique features of this new Primula are stable and reproduced true-to-type in successive generations.